The bus to Palm Beach went from the bottom of the hill at Collaroy, so we set off in the sunshine aiming to arrive at Palm Beach at about 12.45. Our flight was due to take place at 2.00 and we had decided to lunch at the Home and Away cafe prior to take off.  All went to plan until we missed the bus stop. No excuse, Tony’s instructions had been quite clear – we were so busy looking for the lighthouse we quite forgot the golf club! Luckily it was only one stop and it was no real hardship to walk along the sand back to the seaplane jetty and the cafe

After first checking that all was ok for the flight, we joined the busy cafe throng to eat out on the verandah jutting out over the water.  It was the stuff of holiday brochures!  People had come in on boats or off the beach to dine under shady umbrellas surrounded by plants and flowers and served by waiting staff who could have just stepped off the film set themselves and had all been to charm school!

We sat enjoying the sunshine and drinking a beer with our meal.

We had been warned that take off might be just after 2.00 as Steve, the pilot, might need to refuel (I think it was the ‘plane not him that needed refuelling) . Sure enough just before 2.00 there was a whirring sound across the lagoon and the small plane flew in, initially skimming over the water and then lightly resting on its under body catamaran type floats. It looked very small…….

The seaplane operation is run by Steve and his wife (I think), a lovely couple.  He is a little craggy chap who looks in the cockpit as though he is part of the aircraft!  As the ‘plane engine ground to a halt, Mrs Steve very competently moved fuel cans into position and within a very short space of time we were being given our life jackets to tie around our waist (was this to be the only thing between me and ocean swimming I thought…… Once again it looked a little small!) and we were being ushered on board.  The interior was snug to say the least! There were four of us in wat felt like an oversized pram interior ( it might have been the quitting!).  Two behind two with the pilot in front.

Th other passengers were a chap celebrating his birthday who had asked to go ‘somewhere by ‘plane’. and his wife. They were both from Sydney and were waved off by two friends. She was obviously a bit nervous before we took off and showed the anxiety I think we all might have felt – she was just a bit more open about it. It proved totally unnecessary.

After a little bit of floating, the engine was switched on and the propeller started going round and then we were rushing over the water and with absolutely no effort we were off in the air!  It was wonderful as we swept pass the beaches we had visited at the weekend – all looking gorgeous ( which was more than could be said for us with our headphones on in order that we could hear Steve’s commentary on what we were seeing!).

What an experience!

As we neared Sydney harbour,  we saw the ferries carrying passengers from the outlying areas and then the harbour bridge and opera house came into view. Then to top it all we saw the spouting of a whale – no pictures I am afraid too excited to take a photograph!

We were just so lucky to do the flight on such a lovely day.

On the return journey we dropped lower and saw more clearly all the boats moored in the inlets and more beaches  came into view .  What was nice was the fact that we flew over a number of the coastal walks we had made over to Manly, at Curl Curl (where Wendy and Sarah live) and of course Collaroy.

We just loved it and it was a great finale to all our wonderful experiences on the trip

Then the ‘icing on the cake’ of the excursion occurred in that when we got back to Palm Beach and were having a celebratory beer, who should come along but Sarah and Wendy!  They had walked up to the.lighthouse with their friend Debby!  We loved the opportunity of seeing them again and they very kindly took us home after Debby had taken us on another tour of the amazing homes of the rich and famous.  What a place!  Houses with lifts to get you up the rock face within your home, multi balconied affairs – huge palaces!  Australia must be an architects and engineers dream in terms of not only designing the houses to accommodate the terrain but then making it happen!

In the end, delivered home again, we said goodbye to the girls for what had to be the last time of this trip.  We have loved their company.  Then it was our final supper with Justine and Tony  Justine (who I believe has extra hours in her day than the rest of us) sallies in and produces a perfect fish pie for supper – donning her apron over her office wear and still sporting her stilettos!  Incredible! To top it all the evening was still balmy so we had supper on the balcony.

I think we were all a little subdued at the thought of saying good bye on the morrow and a little replica wooden ferry for the Christmas tree nearly brought on the tears……. But  a good night with good friends.

We were beginning to gather ourselves for our departure on Friday.  Keith was cooking a ‘last supper’ for Wendy and Sarah, Justine and Tony and had been gathering his ingredients over several days.  Nevertheless there were a few last minute items required so we set out to walk to the local shops, much disparaged by Justine!  In actual fact the mission proved surprisingly successful and we headed home confident that there was a meal prospect. I had always been confident there would be – I have never known Keith not put on a good meal!

We were outstanding a birthday present to leave for Mickey, so leaving ‘chef’ to do his magic, I took off to the City -alone.  Unfortunately when I got to the shop they had sold the item required so, having exhausted the ordering option I spent a frenetic hour or so looking for an alternative.  All to no avail.  I could not find anything suitable.  Disaster.   Back to the drawing board…..

However in my search I was able to get a couple of good clock photos in the QVB (queen Victoria Building) and a sighting of Queen Victoria’s statue, together with her dog (? I did not know she had one!) which Keith and I had missed on our previous visit.

Justine had very kindly invited me to have a drink with her before catching the bus home.  This all went to plan and she took me to a revolving bar on the top of a building near the infamous bridge.  What fun as Justine and I had ‘previous’ on revolving buildings (take two roving HR people in a revolving restaurant in Hong Kong many years ago – unable to find their table on the return trip from the literally ‘revolving’ buffet……add chickens feet and lost handbags and you have the scene!).   We laughed as we reminded each other of the event and sipped our bubbles as Sydney City slowly moved around us.  Then there was the bridge – looming before us   It was a magical moment with a dear friend.

We left our drinking spot for the bus and arrived home just in time to prep for our dinner party and put the ‘front of house’ in place to do justice to Keith’s cooking.  We just had the best silver and China in place and Sarah and Wendy arrived. Tony matsrialised soon after and – following the overcoming of an escapee cat problem (the two pet cats are constantly desperate to get out) – we all sat down to Keith’s splendid array of food. It was just great to have our four Sydney hosts together….. Another great evening!

We were up early as we wanted to get a good few hours walking in before we headed back to the City.  There being no signs of life from our hosts we took the liberty of leaving our bags in the garage in order that we could walk unencumbered.  The route out to the cliff path was stunning with colour.

Within twenty minutes we were back to the Leura Cascades and out on the path called Prince Henry’s Cliff Walk.  There was no one about and it was a beautiful day.  It was perfect.

The path continued very much as it had done the previous day, closely hugging the contours of the cliff. We had an amazing moment when we found a Lyre Bird digging for grubs at our feet – totally oblivious to our excitement at seeing him! Parrots sat in the branches overhead.  We passed Honeymoon Point which provided another breathtaking view over the mountains, came across more fern trees and still we walked on.  The views were breathtaking!

Monday 27th September

The sulpher crested cockatoos again flew below us. We wandered along the track just absorbing the beauty of it all. We eventually arrived at Echo Point, looking back of the Three Sisters Stacks and decided to call a halt. We had to get back so we retraced our steps – staring in wander at one particular overhang and pausing to sit and watch two parrots sitting a tree warbling to each other…….

We eventually reached the Leura Cascades and walking back up the track towards Leura town walked straight into a snake sunbathing   Now anybody who knows me knows I don’t do snakes, and I was not convinced that it was a grass snake as Keith said …….  Bravely (I thought) I circumnavigated said creature and we moved on. I am still in the recovery mode from this particular case experience!

We wandered back up the road to pick up our bags again – we had been walking over four hours, but we had had a great time.

More flowers edged our path….

What a great place to walk.

we met our hosts as we entered the garden to pick up our bags   They were amazed at the ground we had covered – they told us thar they have lived in Leura fo10 years and have never got to Echo Point!

We were up with the lark, leaving the house with Justine at 6.20 am as we were off to the Blue Mountains for a couple of days and wanted to get there in time to get some good walking in. We just took our rucksacks and were dressed ready to walk, so looked a little out of place on the commuters L90 bus. This Is a much speedier bus than our 180 from the Collaroy Plateau but involves the challenging clamber up and down the hill, which is something of a deterrent. Justine takes the car for the hill climb – sensible girl!

The bus took us right to the central station in Sydney. Tickets purchased, we bought some breakfast and headed for the slow train to the Blue Mountains. Trains here have an upstairs, so for the novelty value we took to the stairs and settled down for the hour and a half’s journey out of the City. As we started to head to the suburbs, we found a different style of living altogether away from the beaches and balconies of the coastal areas.  It provided a useful balance to counter the exotic lifestyles we have been observing in the Sydney areas we have been exposed to thus far here, lovely though they are.  It is certainly not the lot of the majority of Australians to live in architecturally designed splendour overlooking the sea.

As we left the City and its commuter and out of town commercial areas behind, the train starting stopping more frequently at little Victorian country stations, where station masters still blew a whistle and waved a flag to tell the train driver that it was safe to proceed. The journey had the feel of past times in the UK – a Lego land of train sets and Thomas the Tank Engines …..It was absolutely charming and seemed light years more than a few miles from the business of Sydney.

As instructed by the people with whom we were staying, we called them a couple of stops before Leura where we were to get out. As we climbed the steps from the station, as promised, a red Lexus drew up, the very nice man introduced himself, took our bags and pointed us towards the best coffee shop in town and on to the start of the mountain walks. And he was gone! We were left a little dazed but headed off as directed. Coffee stop over we started off down a road lined with trees in blossom of varying shades of dark pink through to white. It was a sight to behold. Equally springlike were the rhododendron shrubs and azaleas in the gardens along the way. Sadly the camellias had obviously been bruised by the weekend’s rain, but this aside,, everything was set for a beautiful spring scene – to be admired and remembered as this time next week we will be heads down for winter at home.

True to the instructions, we came to a t-junction at the end of the road and a map of the cliff top paths that gave access to the blue tinged mountain views that we had heard and read about. Not totally certain where we were heading we descended steep steps on the path signposted Gordon Falls and within a very few minutes we were confronted with the most incredible view. We were looking out over the forest below and out towards a blue mountain horizon. It was magnificent. To our left a small waterfall sent water several hundred feet down to disappear into the woodland below. Our first taste of the maze of paths that meander the cliff side of the Blue Mountain National Park.

Our meanderings along these pathways took us through locations exotically named the Elysian Rock, Fernery Cave, Bridal Veil View – this one bringing us right out to the end of a precipice over looking the end point of the Leura Cascades across the valley. I was heartily pleased that a handrail had been added to the steep steps that took you down to this point. Bouncing was an unlikely option if you missed your footing! Below us Sulphur Crested Cockatoos swooped, dipped and turned, screeching to each other and disappearing out of sight into the distance. Incredible! From this slightly nerve racking viewpoint we retraced our steps and took another path which took us round eventually to the Leura Cascades themselves, a broad rocky waterfall.

We had seen few people as we had walked, but at the Cascades a number of people had gathered as the path came very close to the road that travels along the cliff top. At the point the Cascades become a waterfall there was a lookout tat enabled us to see as a small speck in the distance the Bridal Veil lookout point where we had been half an hour before! It looked even more precarious looking back.

We travelled on. The path that drops away steeply to the left as the cliff descends into the valley below was variously a stoney walkway intersected by large tree roots, rocky steps (either natural or man made), steep wooden stairways or rock walkways. Trees met over head and vast rocky overhangs jutted out to give a nasty headache to the unwary. The path went up and down and turned this way and that as it followed the contours of the cliff face. Not for the faint hearts but absolutely great walking. Birds called.  Small flowers appeared to grow out of the rock.  Lizards rustled by in the tree debris beneath our feet.

We eventually reached the top of the cliff and took a short cut through to the town and checked into our accommodation having been reunited with our bags.  Then it was back up to centre ville to have lunch at the cafe where we had the coffee stop earlier in the day and a little wander around some beautiful shops. It was a lovely spot.

We had supper at a restaurant called Silks at the top of the town and very good it was too.

All in in all another excellent day!

Sadly our planned outing in Tony’s boat with a waterside barbecue to follow had to be deferred until our next visit as the weather was cool and rainy and a mist had more or less obliterated our sea view from the house. In the event we pottered away the morning waiting for the sky to lift and rain to clear and at about 2.00 pm we set out to go for a walk around the Narrabeen Lagoon.

En route we dropped in on the Hacienda del Halliday to collect Justine’s bag and were able to admire the view that had not been possible on Saturday night.  It was, of course, absolutely stunning.  The sea in the distance another inland lake.   However, not wanting to be dismissive of the view, almost more awesome (in the true sense of the word)  was the fact Lesley had talked of gardening at the dinner party and as I looked down from the balcony, sure enough sloping away from us, there was a garden, almost hewn from the rock.  She must garden with a pick axe!  Her talk of breaking a rib while gardening took on a whole new meaning!

Leaving the Hallidays it was off, first to Pittwater where we should have been boating.   Here dogs were having a great time on the dog beach. It seemed as though we weren’t the only ones pleased to see the day brightening and taking the opportunity to get out!

We were then off to North Narrobeen and a stroll around the lagoon. Once again we were to be overwhelmed by the properties surrounding and rising up the escarpment from the water.  All seemed to sport balconies, some almost outside rooms, and seemed to come with the ‘must have ‘ appendages of boat/surf boards/four wheel drive.  It is a different world but great to have the opportunity to see people living the dream,………  There certainly seems to be no shortage of funds in this area of Australia.

Our walk got off to a very good start with an Echidna snuffling around a log looking for ant by the path.  We had not seen one ‘in the wild’ before – so it was very exciting and another thing to tick off in our mental ‘I Spy’ book of Australia!

We strolled on – inevitably frequently passed by the cyclist or runner.  I loved the the running parents with the children on bicycles almost herding them along – apparently a not unheard scenario for the Family Wightman. They are definitely embracing the life of the young Australian family!

it was about 10 kilometres around the lake and a great walk. Unfortunately the pain from the previous day’s boxing training had reached monumental proportions for some among us and while Keith and I skipped along at our normal pace, our two athletes somewhat hobbled and groaned along behind.

Our reward at the end was to sit and have a cold beer and a few nibbles and watch the sun go down.  Nearby a patient fisherman cast his line over the still water.  There was high excitement when it looked like he might have caught something, but in the event it was just his hook caught in the weed.

It was then home for meat barbecued on the balcony with a full mooning shining down on the on the ocean.

A great weekend!

Tony and Justine returned from a very energetic boxing session – which was to give rise to much anguish later in the weekend – ready for a shopping expedition that took in the local wholesale butchers, the supermarket, the dressing up shop (for a grass skirt and lei for the evening’s Hawaiin dinner party) and to see the local Australian pie shop – a ‘full on’ couple of hours!

After one of Tony’s splendid bacon and egg brunches, we were off to do some beachy sightseeing!  First there was a coffee stop at a beach where Tony has finished one of his ocean swims in the past.  From what I can make out these are 10 kilometre swims in what can be a pretty rough ocean.  We were told a tale of a freak storm – Tony’s delayed return,  Justine, Mickey and Coco escaping thunder and lightening and the rain (collecting a lost child on the way), running from the beach and sheltering in an open garage and Tony eventually managing to get through the surf, a very relieved mother and child reunited  …… All told as a normal day out!  Life in Australia sounds a bit too exciting to me sometimes!

The perils of ocean swimming aside at Bilgola Beach  (what about the sharks I whimper…), it was off to Whale beach

Then Palm Beach where they make Home and Away, I am told (I sometimes fear I am very poor on the viewing front as I had never heard of it!), where we walked up to the lighthouse.  This was where we first heard about the painful muscles from the morning’s boxing –

.  

Looking back from the top we could see, not only the ocean and the beach, but a strip of land and the lagoon behind it – a frequent phenomena along this coast.  We took the opportunity while there to book ourselves onto a seaplane flight from the lagoon (weather permitting) for our last day in Australia on the 1st October……. Yet another adventure on this adventure of adventures.   The area of Palm Beach has a very Australian feel – very outdoors, fresh, action packed.

A quick stop for a snack at Barranjoey (where do they get these place names?), it was back home to prepare for our dinner party with David and Lesley, the two good friends of Tony and Justine we had met at the Colleroy Club.  In preparation Tony and Keith had lashed out on two highly suspect Hawaiin shirts especially for the occasion….. I have to report Keith somewhat reluctant to don this pineapple covered creation – I think it was the yellow that caused the reticence! I have never thought of yellow and Keith in the same sentence!

It was a great evening – Lesley and David (in his sarong!) were great hosts and we met two more English people who have moved to Australia to work, Wendy and Simon.  They were lovely too and it was a very colourful and fun time, although for Lesley slightly dampened by the rain downpour that extinguished the flaming torches that she had strategically placed on the balcony!  I was personally concerned that the light from these might cause a distraction for shipping or aircraft in the area as the Hallidays live on another high spot (Elanora Heights) across the valley from the Collaroy Plateau and, if anything, is even higher!  The house is almost ‘perched’ on a rock shelf – we don’t cease to be amazed by the locations of these beautiful houses…..

We had planned to do a cruise on the Hawkesbury River with Sarah and Wendy, but the weather was wet and windy – certainly not cruising weather – so the girls came and picked us up and we went to a couple of exhibitions at the Art Gallery of New South Wales.  We had set out to walk across the Botanical Gardens to get there on a couple of occasions but the weather had been so poor, we had abandoned the previous trips, so it was an ideal opportunity.

First up was the 2015 Archibald Prize.  This was a competition for portrait painters   There were some amazing entrants and they were all of a very high standard.  Keith and I did not agree with the prize winner, although Sarah did. She loved it.  I think my taste is a bit more conventional.  We spent a very happy hour strolling around the paintings and identifying our favourites.  There were two other prize categories – both interesting but I felt the portraits were the best.

The second exhibition was from the Victoria and Albert in London.  It was the photographic work of the 19th century photographer, Julia Margaret Cameron.  She is obviously well thought of and a pioneer of portrait photography.  She travelled around a bit and spent some time in Australia – hence the connection.   I found them a bit whimsical for my taste, although the photographs of some of the prominent figures of her day, eg Darwin and Dickens, were interesting.  She seemed to specialise in out of focus pictures – something I seem to frequently achieve without much effort………

Our culture trip over, we adjourned to an area called the Surry Hills (the Australian spelling – not mine!) for what turned out to be a great Lebanese meal for lunch.  We all ate vegetarian and it was really good.

The girls brought us back to our eyrie and we had a couple of hours down time before we were whisked down the hill to the Colleroy pub for what was called a ‘grown up’ beer!  Like the Colleroy club last week, it overlooked the beach, but given the inclement weather the surf was much more evident crashing on to the sand below us.  They had some really interesting photographs of the Colleroy area in the 1920’s.  A very different place with a real pioneer feel…..

Another dull day dawned so we decided to go into the City In search of a birthday gift to leave for Mickey, do a little retail therapy for ourselves (!) and have lunch, as we had agreed on an independent eating day with Justine and Tony.  We took our time on the bus issue and arrived in the city centre at circa 11.30.

We almost stumbled on the Queen Victoria Building when we got off the bus.  It is quite beautiful – several floors of shops in a stunning red brick Victorian building with stained glass windows

There were cafes on nearly every floor where ladies who lunch were beginning to gather…….   A number of designer shops displayed their expensive wares – all geared towards the imminent summer.  We found a toy shop, but despite a thorough search, left still undecided as to whether we had found a suitable present for Mickey. We took photographs to consult with Justine and Tony and went in search of Cafe Sydney, a restaurant that Keith had identified as doing good food.

The Cafe was on the top floor of the old Customs House building near the harbour. The window seats looked over the water and the bridge. However the only remaining table was further back in the restaurant which enabled us to look out on the assembled fellow diners and on the kitchen teeming with gastronomic activity.

The food was lovely and I ended the meal with a most amazing cocktail instead of a pudding – salted caramel, butterscotch, vodka and Kailua.  It was the most incredible taste – like nothing else I have ever tasted!!!  Apparently it had just come second in the best cocktail in Australia competition.  I cannot imagine what the prize winning cocktail was like!

We left there very happy with life – not a good time to go shopping!  A few purchases later we were back on the bus. I have to admit to a bit of a doze on the journey home……..

We woke up to a wild and woolly day, very overcast with a strong wind howling around the house.  Not what we have been used to! Tony and Justine had left with the girls for the airport just after 6.00 am.

We had committed to cooking for Justine and Tony and Keith was keen to explore the fish market, so we set off down Market Street and over the Darling Harbour Bridge as the map said the fish market was over the other side.  The bridge is pedestrian only and you could see the Maritime Museum, Sea World and Madame Tussaud’s, an outing high on Coco’s list of places to visit!  Once over the bridge it was still quite a walk to the market, but once we got there it was buzzing with activity.

On the market complex there were sheds involved with all sorts of marine doings – large refrigerated trucks were either parked or coming and going, men in oil skins were hosing down the pavement and there was all sorts of fishing apparatus heaped around.

In the market itself, not only was there fresh wet fish for sale, there were also many stalls selling cooked fish of all sorts. Most of the people seated at the long eating tables were Asian – Chinese, Japanese, Malaysian. They were tucking into platters piled high with every sort of fish and crustacean.  They were eating with the usual Asian gusto!   It is unfair that they are all so slim!

We wandered the different stalls, Keth deciding what he was going to need.  It was all very colourful, the counters piled high with ice and colourful fish of all sorts nestling atop the ice mountains.  There were whole fish, filleted fish, crabs, lobsters, abalone, fish heads for sale to make stock, tanks of live crustaceans. A man in one area was hacking at an ice mountain with a large shovel. It was all going on!

There was an excellent vegetable shop where we were able to find all the vegetables and herbs required, a bakery (with a very good brand!) and a delicatessen.

We decided on the fish to be purchased and, our shopping done, we decided to take advantage of the cooked food – Keith had soft crab and I had a piece of salmon.

When we emerged from the market the weather had taken a serious down turn.  The return walk over the bridge was hard going. The wind had really got up and the flags that lined the bridge were flapping and straining against their flagpoles. It had also started to rain.  It was grim. However we battled our way across and back to the central Wynyard bus stop where all the buses go from and made our way home.

Keith then embarked on a cooking frenzy to prepare a tapas supper.

A good time was had by all!

The girls were going to visit Justine and Tony’s offices for the day, so we all set off for the City again together. The bus took forever this time and we were all getting quite anxious by the time we got there as we had a pre booked tour of the Opera House starting at 11.30. We delivered the girls to Tony and made it, but there was not too much time to spare!

The English tour group was a big one so we were a bit unmanageable, but the tour proved to be very interesting.  There were rehearsals going on in a number of the many theatres, open spaces and enormous concert rooms so there had to be some fancy footwork to ensure that we saw it all…,

The Opera House is considered to be a sculpture as well as a building  it was built by a chap from Denmark called Jorn Utzon, but his relationship with the building had a somewhat chequered history.  His father was a naval architect and ithe building was built incorporating ship design features. For instance the windows facing out over the harbour have a slope of 45 degrees so there is no reflection – the same technique as that used on a ship’s bridge.  The building was also built to last  – most modern buildings have a built in obsolescence – i.e. Are destined to exist only for a few years and then be replaced.   The Opera House was built to last at least 250 years.

Uztons design was originally rejected from the number of tenders originally generated, but was brought back into play as the only one that embrace the position on the water front and he was given the job

It was originally anticipated the Opera House would take 3 years to build and cost $7 million. In the event it was commissioned in the 60’s and eventually opened in 1973 and cost $102 million, but Jorn Utzon never saw the building completed. He resigned from the job before it was finished due to political pressures over the costs and never came back to Australia.  The money for the building was eventually raised by public subscription and the Lottery Fund.  Three years after it was opened Jorn Utzon was re contracted to revisit some areas that had not been built to his original plans.  He worked on this project from Denmark, sending his son  to Australia to see the task completed.  Jorn Utzon died in 2007 by which time the Opera House had been pronounced a Unesco World Heritage Site.

Up close, that amazing roof is not the white it appears from a distance, but is made up of  1,200,0006 self cleaning  tiles In a sort of cream/ ivory colour.

On the inside it has wooden struts that span out under the ‘sails’ and allowing light in

The huge opera house complex incorporates different sized theatres, restaurants and the two large areas for opera and orchestra.  The large Joan Sutherland Hall was built for the performance of operas and ballet.  The opera and ballet season finished at the end of August and the set for Cole Porter’s musical Anything Goes Was on stage when we went into the auditorium.  No microphones are needed for any of the productions as the all wood build provides perfect acoustics and no other means of amplification is required. In the 2,600 seat concert hall, where the Sydney Symphony orchestra was practising when we visited, the enormous organ has over 10,000 pipes and took 10 years to build.  It sits imposingly fair and square along the whole back wall of the stage.  Both halls are enormously attractive with their modern wood interior and bright red cushioned seats  – just oozing a good musical experience.

It is possible to walk out on to balconies overlooking the harbour and the iconic Sydney Harbour Bridge on a number of the levels and although there are few reflections on the inside, there are some wonderful opportunities for arty photographs on the outside

The tour finished and we were just wondering what to do next when the five minute bell went for the Matinee Performance of Anything Goes   On the spur of the moment we dashed to the box office to see if there were any tickets left.  Miraculously, they had two wonderful seats not taken and with seconds to spare we were back in the Joan Sutherland Hall for an afternoon of familiar tunes, corny repartee, colourful twenties gowns and tap dancing.  I could not think of a better way to spend a cool and cloudy afternoon in Sydney.  A great decision!

The show finished at 4.00 and we were out into a far more dismal day than we had left and we were starving.  However we were meeting up with the family for a last supper with the girls, so we had a light snack on the hoof, a glass of wine and a coffee and it was time to meet up with the family Wightman.   Given the weather, plans to take the ferry to Manly were abandoned and we all went home on the bus and had a very good Indian Takeaway in from the friendly Jaz at his restaurant in the parade of shops at the end of the road on the Collaroy Plateau.

The girls then packed their bags as they were off to see Grandma and Grandpa Wightman in Wellington for a couple of weeks and were flying to Adelaide the early the next morning and we are to be gone before they return.   We reluctantly said our fond farewells ( they were to leave the house at 6.00! In the morning ) and promising to return we adjourned to bed.  It has been fun spending time with them.